India ranks 24th in first Environmental Democracy Index

Washington: India has ranked 24th out of 70 countries in the first Environmental Democracy Index that is topped by Lithuania and evaluates nations' progress in enacting laws to promote transparency, accountability and citizen engagement in environmental decision making.

Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, the US, South Africa, the UK, Hungary, Bulgaria, Panama and Colombia are the top 10 nations in the list launched by Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI) and Access Initiative on Wednesday.

The index evaluates environmental democracy in 70 countries, including 75 legal and 24 practice indicators, based on recognised international standards.

"For the first time, we have an objective, common index to understand the state of environmental democracy for countries around the world, which is essential to strengthen laws and public participation around environmental issues," said Mark Robinson, global director, Governance, WRI.

According to the report, 93 percent of the assessed countries have established the right to environmental information. However, almost half of these countries (45 percent) do not have strong protections to ensure that access to information is affordable and timely, it said.